05/15/2010
Another Cemetery On Line–Lamoine
Orren A. Hodgkins, Died Nov. 9, 1866, AE. 16yrs 11mos.
One of the best tools for genealogical research is finding the grave markers of your ancestors on the internet. A headstone will often have information other sources don’t: “wife of”, “lost at sea”, even “US Army, WWII” may tell you things you didn’t know. Family groupings in the same cemetery can answer questions too. There are several sites which have these records along with pictures of markers. The main one is findagrave.com. Others include interment.net, uscemeteryproj.com, usgwarchives.org and rootsweb.ancestry.com. There are more which require a fee, but I find findagrave to be the biggest and best of the free sites. You have to put up with a few banner ads but no pop-ups or other annoyances. Besides the ad revenue, findagrave makes money by inducing people to pay to have the ads removed from their loved one’s “memorials” which it calls the web page upon which the grave details and biographical information are placed. Some may find this distasteful, but hosting huge sites costs money and having a staff which can respond to requests and errors is also not cheap.
I have been a findagrave volunteer for a few months. When someone far away needs a picture of their ancestor’s stone locally I will go take a picture and set up a memorial page or add a photo to an existing page. I have also been the recipient of this generosity when I received a photo of great grandparents Catherine Brooks and Civil War soldier James Kinsley’s stone from northwestern Ohio:
I find this work to be oddly satisfying. I am not overly morbid or maudlin, I just think the internet is a better place to store important genealogy records than carved into marble or stuffed into a filing cabinet somewhere.
My latest project is more ambitious; to put the entire East Lamoine Cemetery on line. So far I’ve collected and put on line 290 graves which can be seen here. I’m hoping someone somewhere will type in the name of a great grandfather and my picture of his grave will pop up.
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Filed under History, Lamoine by on May 15th, 2010. Comment.
Comments on Another Cemetery On Line–Lamoine »
I didn’t scroll to the end of the East Lamoine Cemetery grave list, but there should be one labeled Unidentified Civil War Soldier. I have been researching that grave for some time. Unfortunately, the paperwork has not been located.
I am 90% or better convinced I can identify that soldier. His name is Charles Francis Walker. His story can be read by clicking on:
RIGHTING A CIVIL WAR WRONG: A Gravestone for a Civil War Veteran or
http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/righting-a-civil-war-wrong-a-gravestone-for-a-civil-war-veteran/
If anyone knows any way to locate the paperwork necessary to prove my assumption is true I’d appreciate the input.
After all, in such a small town having an unidentified Civil War grave AND a Civil War soldier with an unknown grave site seems ironic.
Charles Walker married Armenia Des Isles, the granddaughter of French settler Louis and Mary Googins Des Isles. I have 90% circumstantial evidence she is also buried there, but again, there is no record.